Craven Dam is at the confluence of the Qu'Appelle River and Last Mountain Creek and immediately east of the village of Craven on the Qu'Appelle River at

LSD Lysergic acid diethylamide, commonly known as LSD (from German ; often referred to as acid or lucy), is a semisynthetic, hallucinogenic compound derived from ergot, known for its powerful psychological effects and serotonergic activity. I ...

SW 24-20-21 W2. It is in the

Canadian province Canada has ten provinces and three territories that are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Constitution of Canada, Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North Amer ...

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada. It is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and to the south by the ...

in the RM of Longlaketon No. 219. The dam does not create a reservoir as its purpose is to regulate water flow along the Qu'Appelle River. The dam is operated by the Saskatchewan Water Security Agency and can be accessed on the north side by Highway 99. Craven Dam is the dividing point between the upper and lower watersheds of the Qu'Appelle River. The total

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land in which all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, ...

of the Qu'Appelle River upstream from the dam is and it is divided into five sub-basins, which include Lanigan-Manitou,

Wascana Creek Wascana Creek is a river in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It is a tributary of the Qu'Appelle River. Originating in the fields east of Regina near Vibank, Wascana Creek travels south-east for approximately before turning back west ...

Last Mountain Lake Last Mountain Lake, also known as Long Lake, is a prairie lake formed from Last Glacial Period, glaciation 11,000 years ago. It is located in south central Saskatchewan, Canada, about north-west of the city of Regina, Saskatchewan, Regina. I ...

, Upper Qu'Appelle, and

Moose Jaw River Moose Jaw River is a river in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It is located in the southern part of the province in a region called the Prairie Pothole Region of North America, which extends througho ...

. The original Craven Dam was built in 1943 and did not include a

fishway A fish ladder, also known as a fishway, fish pass, fish steps, or fish cannon, is a structure on or around artificial and natural barriers (such as dams, locks and waterfalls) to facilitate diadromous fishes' natural migration as well as mov ...

. Starting in August of 2002 and finishing in 2003, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada rebuilt the dam. The new dam included a long fishway that runs along the north side. It is wide and includes seven vertical baffles within the structure that are designed to reduce flow velocities to create refuges for migrating fish. At the upstream end of the fishway, there is a 1.5 by 1.5-metre gated bay. The dam itself is long and high. The dam consists of four gates, each wide and high. Water flow can be reduced through the dam's gates so that water backfloods up Last Mountain Creek and into

. In that case, Last Mountain Lake, which is a natural lake, becomes a reservoir. When the dam's gates are open, water from Last Mountain Lake and the Qu'Appelle River flow east and downstream into

Pasqua Lake Pasqua Lake is a lake along the course of the Qu'Appelle River in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. Pasqua Lake was named after Chief Joseph Pasqua who formed what became the Pasqua First Nation. It is one of four lakes that make up the ...

, which is one of the

Fishing Lakes The Fishing Lakes, also called the Calling Lakes or the Qu'Appelle Lakes, are a chain of four lakes in the Qu'Appelle Valley cottage country about to the north-east of Regina in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. The lakes are in a regio ...

. The fishway is designed with bays that allow researchers to drop a steel fish trap to capture fish for study. Passive Integrated Transponder (PIT) tags were implemented into the abdominal cavity of fish and used to assess fish movements through the fishway. Some of the fished being monitored include the

bigmouth buffalo The bigmouth buffalo (''Ictiobus cyprinellus'') is a fish native to North America that is in decline. It is the largest North American species in the Catostomidae or "sucker" family, and is one of the List of longest-living organisms, longest-liv ...

common carp The common carp (''Cyprinus carpio''), also known as European carp, Eurasian carp, or simply carp, is a widespread freshwater fish of eutrophic waters in lakes and large rivers in Europe and Asia.Fishbase''Cyprinus carpio'' Linnaeus, 1758/ref>Ark ...

lake whitefish The lake whitefish (''Coregonus clupeaformis'') is a species of freshwater whitefish from North America. Lake whitefish are found throughout much of Canada and parts of the northern United States, including all of the Great Lakes. The lake white ...

northern pike The northern pike (''Esox lucius'') is a species of carnivorous fish of the genus ''Esox'' (pikes). They are commonly found in brackish water, moderately salty and fresh waters of the Northern Hemisphere (''i.e.'' holarctic in distribution). T ...

quillback The quillback (''Carpiodes cyprinus''), also known as the quillback sucker, is a type of freshwater fish of the sucker family widely distributed throughout North America. It is deeper-bodied than most suckers, leading to a fuller-bodied appeara ...

walleye The walleye (''Sander vitreus'', Synonym (taxonomy), synonym ''Stizostedion vitreum''), also called the walleyed pike, yellow pike, yellow pikeperch or yellow pickerel, is a freshwater perciform fish native to most of Canada and to the Northern ...

white sucker The white sucker (''Catostomus commersonii'') is a species of freshwater cypriniform fish inhabiting the upper Midwest and Northeast in North America, but it is also found as far south as Georgia and as far west as New Mexico. The fish is common ...

, and

yellow perch The yellow perch (''Perca flavescens''), commonly referred to as perch, striped perch, American perch or preacher is a freshwater perciform fish native to much of North America. The yellow perch was described in 1814 by Samuel Latham Mitchill fr ...

References

{{Authority control Dams in Saskatchewan Dams completed in 1943 Longlaketon No. 219, Saskatchewan

See also

References